1. Field of the Invention
Utilization of metal chips, especially scrap metal chips, particularly brass and aluminum. Introduction of said metal chips into a molten mass of metal of which they are formed and below the surface thereof. Maintaining a densified mass of compacted chips at an optimum density and maintaining the rate of chip introduction into the molten metal mass at an optimum level and apparatus for so doing.
2. Prior Art
The situation has been fully reviewed in my prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,702,768, upon which the present method and apparatus are improvements. Reference is made to that U.S. patent, issued Oct. 27, 1987, and the disclosure thereof is incorporated herein by reference as fully as though it were set forth herein. It is a part of the prior art relevant to the present invention and the most relevant prior art of which I am aware.
In my prior patent, a method of compacting and extruding metal chips into the form of a solid stripform or rope, from a briquetter or compacting extruder or the like, for the convenient and controlled introduction thereof into a mass of molten metal of which the chips were formed at a point below the surface thereof, and apparatus for so doing, was disclosed. The object was to reduce undesirable oxidation of the chips and of the mass of molten metal into which introduced, and to obtain more efficient and economical control over the procedure of rapidly melting the starting chips into a mass of molten metal in a reverberatory furnace or the like, a paramount objective being the provision of a more satisfactory method whereby metal chips, especially scrap metal chips, could be reintroduced into the stream of commerce in the form of new metal.
Although the method and apparatus of my prior patent went far toward alleviating the problems previously existing in the art, it has now been found that still additional improvements and advantages can be effected. Such improvements in the method and in the apparatus are the subject matter of the present patent application.